Need opinions please?

Question

I have a website and I need opinions about both appearance and content. Please look at a minimum of 3 pages and tell me which pages please. If you have any ideas on getting the word out about my site that would be helpful. Thanks so much for your time.

http://booksandmore4kids.googlepages.com

Answer 1

NO! NO "more colors!" It's refreshing to see a page that's about CONTENT and not about "glitz!"



Everyone is saying this is boring because they are looking for fun stuff. They have no interest in your topic, hence, it's boring.



But you don't care about drawing in someone uninterested in your topic. Someone interested in a topic doesn't CARE about pretty colors or graphics. They want to find something, and will navigate through "web site hell" to find it. Your job is to make that as easily accessible as possible.



The only things you MIGHT add:



- Absolute MUST, that is missing from your site: Every page, EVERY SINGLE PAGE should have a navigation scheme at the top and the bottom so you can get to ANY other part of the site from where you are. "Return to home page" is a waste of space. Put a nav bar, in plain text, for all the major areas of your site, something like



Home | Adults | Ages 4-8 | Elementary | Kids Like Us | Birth-Age 3 | History | Math | Science | Misc



With each a link. EVERY PAGE, top and bottom, bottom is important because some of your pages are quite long, which is OKAY in this case - it's all content.



- thumbnail pictures of the books, if you can get permission to use them. Although everyone says "don't judge a book by it's cover" kids often do.



- excerpts of an interesting part of the books, but don't list them on the page. Make it a link, like "Read an excerpt." You may also need to obtain permission to do this.



For marketing, submit it to the the following suggest a site suggest site links:

http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD2



There are similar ones for AOL and Alta Vista.

Yahoo has only a pay-submit. But that's okay, they use the same databases as Alta Vista and Inktomi, get in Google and MSN, and the rest will follow.



Do not fall for link directories. These are spam farms and may actually hurt you rather than help you.



Search engines read TEXT. Your site has lots of TEXT and will index VERY WELL. Ignore all those that talk about design. Successful web sites are about CONTENT and solving visitors' problems, not pretty graphics.



Stay the course, you are one of the FEW who is on the right track!

Answer 2

Yes to all duombek said.

I do webdesign as a hobby (and occasionally for profit). So here's my two cents.



Colors:

I understand what some people mean when they say "more color" - they mean that it seems a bit bland and it needs something to spice it up. Lots of colors isn't the answer.

I do think a nice color scheme would make it a bit more appealing to the eye. Don't add random colors willy-nilly though, follow a scheme as if you're decorating a room.

Pick three colors, or three shades of one color. If you like blue, find three nice shades of blue. Use one for the background, another for links, another for headers or large text.

If you need help with that colorschemer.com is rather useful. Here's an example of a blue scheme - http://www.colorschemer.com/schemes/viewscheme.php?id=6062



Organization:

This is VERY important. No matter how useful the info on your site is, people won't use it if they can't find things or if there's too many pages.

I would advise against having your first page so long, it's a bit overwhelming. Keep a short intro on the first page, and direct users to the menu.

Follow duombek's advice about a main menu (this is very very important). Keep the menu relatively simple, not too many choices, you can always add sub-menus. Looking at what you've got there, I'd say make each of the headings into a menu item - that would give you 10 menu items.

Then make a page for each of the selections. For instance

BOOKS ABOUT ANIMALS:



* Fiction With Animals as the Main Characters

* Dogs! Dogs! Dogs!

* Horses! Horses! Horses!

Would be its own page. It may seem small, but it'll be easier for users to find and they won't have to scroll through other text to get there.



You don't seem the type to do any of the following, but just in case.....Some things you should definitely NOT do, no matter what (because they absolutely scream amateur):

Don't put music on the site

Don't put a picture as the site background (a very mild pattern is ok)

Don't have anything animated on the site

Don't have an animated cursor

Don't give each page a different color scheme



duombek pretty much summed everything else up. Good luck!

Answer 3

I looked at the first three pages and they all looked the same. Maybe add some pics of the authors or books you talk about. I would like to see a lot more color and animation. Try and make it more versitile then just informative. It is kinda a boring page with a lot of great info that people would want to know but too bored to look for.

Answer 4

Since it is a website for kids I think it should have a little more color. Also, it was hard for me to figure out the website. I think you should split the site up into more diverse categories. Another thing I would like to add is that it was very hard for me to find "Diamond Brothers Series" even though I knew it was on your site because a friend had told me. You did a really good job overall, and I emailed all my friends a link to your website to send the word out. Keep working on it because you are so close! Good job and good luck!

Answer 5

You have a really good start. I visited the home page and clicked on some links to books for children. All the links worked and that is important.

You need to make the main pages more interesting, graphics, colors etc. Overall nice work though.

Answer 6

I suppose humans can suppose unfastened to have the opinion that they desire. They will have to be capable to specific there opinion, and those that concentrate (which will have to be tons of humans) will have to have an open brain, and perhaps difference there opinion. Some critiques would possibly not develop into something, but it surely doesnt imply there nugatory. Even if no one treasures your opinion, you will have to. Its what makes you who you're.

Answer 7

I like your website.....you read aome of the same authors that I do! Romance/women's fiction.....I will tell follow readers about the site.

Answer 8

I think it needs more color to make it more attractive to younger children. Just a suggestion ;]